Armstrong Williams: Ben Carson as American as apple pie, Chevrolet, football and Serena Williams

Retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is as American as apple pie, Chevrolet, football, baseball and tennis star Serena Williams, the 2016 GOP presidential candidate’s business partner and confidante said Tuesday.

“Dr. Carson’s appeal is that he’s as American as apple pie and Chevrolet and football and baseball,” conservative commentator Armstrong Williams said on CNN’s “New Day.” “He’s as American as Serena Williams, who we hope [will] capture her 22nd Grand Slam and a calendar slam.”

Mr. Carson’s stock has been on the rise in recent polling and he was in a tie for first in the race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination with billionaire businessman Donald Trump in a Monmouth University poll released Monday.

Mr. Williams, who also writes a column for The Washington Times, had been read a portion of Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart’s recent piece in which Mr. Capehart writes: “Carson is also this cycle’s Republican answer to Obama. A role that was Herman Cain’s in the 2012 race. The sad subtext of the support is ’See, we have our own brilliant black man!’ “

Mr. Williams was asked if he thinks the appeal is because Mr. Carson is black.

“Dr. Carson relates to the American people. … You cannot put him in a box,” Mr. Williams said. “He understands racism because he grew up in poverty, he grew up with discrimination. He was often mistaken as an orderly at Johns Hopkins University, but Dr. Carson is not defined by race. … He’s defined by his rise out of poverty, embracing the American dream like many immigrants who come to this country and make it their own. He finds his footstool through hard work, discipline, faith in God and sacrifice, and that’s who we are as ’we the people,’ as Americans every day. That’s who Dr. Carson is.”